THREE FRONTS OF THE EUROPEAN THEATER
The European Theater of World War II was a huge area of heavy fighting across Europe from Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 until the end of the war, with the German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945. The Allied forces fought the Axis powers in three European sub-theaters: the Eastern Front, the Western Front, and the Mediterranean Theater.
The Eastern Front was by far the largest and bloodiest theater of World War II. It occurred between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, Norway, and some other Allies, which encompassed Northern, Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945. The Western Front of the European Theater comprised Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, and Western Germany. The first phase saw the capitulation of the Netherlands, Belgium and France during May and June 1940 and continued into an air war between Germany and Britain that climaxed with the Battle of Britain. The second phase consisted of large-scale ground combat, which began in June 1944 with the Allied landings in Normandy and continued until the defeat of Germany in May 1945. The Mediterranean Theater, commonly discussed together with operations in the Middle East, saw interconnected naval, land, and air campaigns fighting for control of the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and Southern Europe. The fighting in this theater lasted from June 10, 1940, when Italy entered the war on the side of Nazi Germany, until May 2, 1945 when all Axis forces in Italy surrendered. However, fighting would continue in Greece, where British troops had been dispatched to aid the Greek government,, during the early stages of the Greek Civil War.
BRITISH STRATEGY
Since the Entente Cordiale which had won the First World War, Britain's strategy for continental war was based on alliance with France and later unsuccessful efforts to engage Fascist Italy and the USSR in an effort to contain Germany. Confronted with the rise of Hitler's power on the continent in 1933, and weakened economically by the Great Depression, Great Britain sought initially to avoid or delay war through diplomacy (Appeasement), while at the same time re-arming (Neville Chamberlain's European Policy). Emphasis for re-armament was given to air forces with the view that these would be most useful in any future war with Germany.
Upon the outbreak of war in September 1939, British rearmament was not yet complete. Britain remained incapable of offensive operations except for strategic bombing, and this was relatively ineffective in the early war.
After the fall of France in mid 1940 and Italian entry into the war on the Axis side, Britain and her commonwealth allies found themselves alone against most of Europe. British strategy was one of survival, defending the British isles directly in the Battle of Britain (according to British historians: July 10 - October 31, 1940) and indirectly by defeating Germany in the Battle of the Atlantic (the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945) and the combined Axis powers in the North African Campaign. Through this period, and until the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941, there was no possibility of Britain winning the war alone, and so British Grand Strategy aimed to bring the USA into the war on the allied side. Prime Minister Churchill devoted much of his diplomatic efforts to this goal. In August 1941, at the Atlantic Conference he met US President Roosevelt in the first of many wartime meetings wherein allied war strategy was jointly decided.
In December 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war. Britain was now also at war with imperial Japan, whose forces inflicted rapid defeats on British forces in Asia, capturing Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore and Burma. Nevertheless, Churchill expressed the view that with the entry of the USA into the war, ultimate victory was assured for the Allies. "All the rest was merely the proper application of overwhelming force." From this point onward, the strategy of the Allies, other than the USSR, is better addressed as joint Allied Strategy.
"EUROPE FIRST"
"Europe first," also known as Germany first, was the key element of the grand strategy employed by the United States and the United Kingdom during World War II. According to this policy, the United States and the United Kingdom would use the preponderance of their resources to subdue Nazi Germany in Europe first. They would also fight a holding action against Japan in the Pacific, using fewer resources. After the defeat of Germany—considered the greatest threat to Great Britain—all Allied forces could be concentrated against Japan. However, official U.S. statistics show that the United States devoted more resources in the early part of the war to stopping the advance of Japan, and not until 1944 was a clear preponderance of U.S. resources allocated toward the defeat of Germany.
WESTERN FRONT
Following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, the British Expeditionary Force was sent to the Franco-Belgian border in mid-September. During this period, (known as the Phoney War - the period between the fall of Poland and the German invasion on the Low Countries and France), the RAF carried out small bombing raids and a large number of propaganda leaflet raids (code named "Nickels") and the Royal Navy imposed a coastal blockade on Germany.
During the German invasion of Norway, British troops made amphibious landings at Namsos during April 1940 in an effort to stop the Germans advancing North but all British troops were evacuated by 4 May 1940. As a consequence of the loss of Norway and Denmark, the Royal Navy commenced a pre-emptive occupation of the Faroe Islands and the Royal Navy occupied Iceland to install naval and air bases on this Atlantic island. After German troops entered France, the British forces attempted to stop the offensive and launched counter-attacks. Eventually, Churchill ordered that all British troops should be evacuated from France without delay.
The fall of France left Britain alone among formally non-neutral states in Europe. The operations of the Luftwaffe against the Royal Air Force became known as the Battle of Britain. In its aftermath, UK remained independent. The invasion of Normandy, the largest amphibious assault in history, took place on 6 June 1944 and marked the critical point in the eventual victory of the Allied powers in Europe. Britain was the main base for the operation and provided the majority of the naval power for it. Nearly eighty percent of the bombarding and transporting warships were from the Royal Navy. Air power for the operation was a more even divide. The operation was a success. Both tactical and strategic surprise were achieved.
THE MEDITERRANEAN AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Fascist Italy aimed to carve out a new Roman Empire, while British forces aimed initially to retain the status quo. Italy launched various attacks around the Mediterranean, which were largely unsuccessful. With the introduction of German forces, Yugoslavia and Greece were overrun. Allied and Axis forces engaged in back and forth fighting across North Africa, with Axis interference in the Middle East causing fighting to spread there. With confidence high from early gains,German forces planned elaborate attacks to be launched to capture the Middle East and then to possibly attack the southern border of the Soviet Union. However, following three years of fighting, Axis forces were defeated in North Africa and their interference in the Middle East was halted. Allied forces then commenced an invasion of Southern Europe, resulting in the Italians deposing Mussolini and joining the Allies. A prolonged battle for Italy took place between Allied and German forces, and as the strategic situation changed in south-east Europe, British troops returned to Greece.
EASTERN FRONT
The involvement of the British at the Eastern Front was relatively limited comparing to the two other sub-theaters. British and Commonwealth forces contributed directly to the fighting on the Eastern Front through their service in the Arctic convoys and training Red Air Force pilots, as well as in the provision of early material and intelligence support.
Soon after the German attack, the British supplied a unit, No. 151 Wing RAF, to defend Murmansk and to train Soviet pilots on British Hurricane fighters. After the RAF personnel left, the British continued to supply aircraft: 3,000 more Hurricanes and 4,000 other aircraft during the war. Five thousand tanks were provided by the British and Canada. As Soviet tank production increased these foreign tanks were used on less important fronts such as the Caucasus. Total British supplies were about four million tons.
WWII in Europe
Animation of the WWII European Theater.